Not sure what you mean..... ‘normal’ 5C collets would be outside collets as you are holding the outside of the work.

You can get ‘inside’ collets, that can hold a part using an inside diameter, such as a piece of tube, or a reamed or bored hole. (Not likely a drilled hole would be used, at least in any application I’ve seen.)

There are also soft collets that can be bored or machined to non-standard sizes or shapes as well. To machine them there are usually holes for pins, that allow you to ‘clamp’ the collet, machine as needed. Then open it up, remove the pins, and put your part in the collet and clamp it up.

Usually this sort of stuff is all for higher volume stuff, CNC, that sort of thing as it would be costly in a home shop for one piece.

Not sure what you mean..... ‘normal’ 5C collets would be outside collets as you are holding the outside of the work.

You can get ‘inside’ collets, that can hold a part using an inside diameter, such as a piece of tube, or a reamed or bored hole. (Not likely a drilled hole would be used, at least in any application I’ve seen.)

There are also soft collets that can be bored or machined to non-standard sizes or shapes as well. To machine them there are usually holes for pins, that allow you to ‘clamp’ the collet, machine as needed. Then open it up, remove the pins, and put your part in the collet and clamp it up.

Usually this sort of stuff is all for higher volume stuff, CNC, that sort of thing as it would be costly in a home shop for one piece.

Are you talking about "expanding" collets Chris. Like the first image? They're very handy if you have a part with a smooth bore that you want to machine on the OD and keep everything concentric. Because of their design they have a pretty small grip range but they're very handy if you're doing a few parts and want to ensure that they're all the same.

Clutch collets (as in the second image), on the other hand, are made in various sizes and are designed to be bored to fit a particular part. They're great when you need to hold something that is an oddball size, especially if it's larger than what you could hold with a standard sized 5C collet.

Emergency collets are similar to clutch collets. The term is usually reserved for soft, machinable collets less than 1" in capacity.

I have a few pieces of all the above examples--they're just one more tool you can have in the box to make certain jobs easier. Can't remember offhand how much I paid for them but I don't believe they're very expensive--price will depend a lot on the quality of the collet. In any case they're well worth the money if they make a job go faster and more smoothly...

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__________________Keith

Measure twice and cut once...or...wait, was that the other way around?